What is the difference between being blasphemous and outright blasphemy?  For a Catholic film reviewer, that is a heckuva way to begin discussing any film.  Yet, if you saw one of the trailers for Deadpool & Wolverine, you will know the question is warranted.  All of us, no matter how committed you are to honoring and worshipping God above and before everything else, as the Bible commands us, have been guilty at some moment of uttering a phrase that could be construed as blasphemous.  This usually comes in the form of the kinds of swear words our parents warned us about as children.  It is not until we mature in our relationship with God that we realize the gravity of, if nothing else, using the Lord’s name in vain.  Others, because of some wound, take things a step further.  These are the ones who are most likely to perpetrate actual blasphemy.  What I am getting at are definitions of degrees, and God is the One who knows the actual intent in our hearts at these times.  Luckily, we have a way back through contrition, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation for us Catholics.  As for Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), known to comic book fans as Deadpool, he makes it a point to set himself up as the Messiah of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).  Is this blasphemy?  To borrow Cameron’s oft repeated phrase, “let’s find out.”

If you are hoping that the first character Deadpool & Wolverine is not actually guilty of the sin described above, the beginning is unhelpful.  We see him digging up the grave of the eponymous superhero from Logan (2017), who we also know as the Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), in order to team up to save his world.  Why Deadpool would be desecrating a grave, or armed men from the Time Variance Authority (TVA) be trying to stop him, is the subject of a flashback that takes up the next twenty minutes or so.  After the events of Deadpool 2 (2018), with Wade in possession of Cable’s (Josh Brolin) time machine, the “Merc with a Mouth” goes about bringing back all his friends who died as a result of either his enemies getting revenge or his wise-cracking bungling.  One of the TVA’s duties in the MCU is to police what it calls threats to the “sacred timeline.”  This requires a whole explanation of events from other Marvel titles that I will not bore you with at this time.  The main thing to understand is that changing the past (or future) can result in consequences that destroy entire universes.  Thus, a TVA agent known as Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfayden) kidnaps Wade into TVA headquarters to call Deadpool’s actions to account.  They find a Wade who has tried, and failed, to keep Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin) as his fiancée, and to join the Avengers in a separate dimension.  Thus, he decides to be a toupee wearing used car salesman.  What motivates Wade to listen to Mr. Paradox is the announcement that the anti-hero’s universe is about to be destroyed thanks to the death of Logan.  Wade protests, wanting to keep his friends alive, but Mr. Paradox seems disinclined to help.  Thus, being re-kitted with his uniform and all his weapons, Deadpool steals one of the TVA’s devices that allows them to move between realities in order to find a substitute Wolverine.  Hopping through multiple universes, Deadpool keeps encountering Wolverines less than enthusiastic, to say the least, to lend a claw.  The one he does eventually settle on proves too drunk to put up much of a fight, and this is the one taken back to the TVA.  Yet, Mr. Paradox denies that any Wolverine would do and says the TVA is going to go ahead with destroying Deadpool’s existence no matter the so-called hero’s efforts.  Besides, this particular Wolverine had proved unreliable, his actions leading to the deaths of all the X-Men in his world.  Before our title duo can resist in earnest, they are sent to a place called The Void.  This is where the TVA deposits those they “prune,” meaning they are snapped out of reality and onto a place where they can no longer affect reality.  Wolverine is not pleased with being dragged into this mess, and the only way Deadpool gets the former X-Man to be any kind of cooperative is by promising to use the TVA to fix Logan’s world.  In the process, they are met up by other superheroes sent to the same place, the first of which is the Human Torch, known to his fellow Fantastic Four mates as Johnny Storm (Chris Evans).  These three are captured by the villains of this land, and brought to their evil leader, Dr. Charles Xavier’s deranged twin Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin).  She has none of her brother’s care for life, but all of his psychic abilities.  She thus easily forces Deadpool and Wolverine to retreat.  Still, they see her as their ticket back to Deadpool’s universe.  This includes a number of other faces familiar to Marvel fans, though Wolverine wants no part in it since he learns that Deadpool has lied about bringing back the X-Men.  Nonetheless, Wolverine pitches in and they manage to get Juggernaut’s (Channing Tatum) helmet onto Cassandra’s head.  This means she cannot use her abilities, which prevents her from sending Deadpool and Wolverine where they want to go.  This is when one of her henchmen intervenes, one fed up with her, who mortally wounds her.  To fix things, they need to take off the helmet, but upon doing so she has promised to kill them in the most gruesome way possible.  Wolverine manages to reason with her, but when they get to Deadpool’s world, they learn that Mr. Paradox has installed a machine designed to speed up the universe destruction process.  Cassandra is not far behind, but she wants to use the device to destroyed all realities.  Mr. Paradox finally reverses course, saying that the only way the doomsday device can be stopped is by one of them going to the power source and short circuiting it with their body, which will kill the one who attempts it.  Deadpool tricks Wolverine into being the one to make the sacrifice, but Wolverine breaks in to assist in completing the electrical feat.  In the feedback, Cassandra is destroyed, though Deadpool and Wolverine surviving prove Mr. Paradox wrong.  The latter is arrested by the TVA and our title pair settle into a life with Wade’s friends, and a few new additions.

If you have been keeping up with MCU events between Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Deadpool & Wolverine, you are aware that the new additions put out by this juggernaut of a studio have not earned it the same accolades as previous eras.  Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios’ head, calls these “phases.”  I do not remember which phase they are currently on, nor does it matter.  For a character that refers to himself as “Marvel Jesus,” the adherence to these arbitrary cinematic epochs would seem an obvious joke among the many in the film.  Yet, this one goes down as a missed opportunity.  I am also not one that subscribes to Deadpool being the savior of this once mighty studio.  This is not simply a Catholic concerned with blasphemy.  If he is someone in the Christ mold, then what new direction has he given for other like films?  The majority of the characters used are those once held as the property of movie production companies other than Marvel.  An argument can be made that this film gives those heroes and heroines a moment to shine since Disney is now free to re-cast them all.  Is this redemption?  I am not sure, unless we consider it in discreet terms, such as this Wolverine being called back from the depths of depression.  Further, Jesus gave His Apostles a purpose, during His time on Earth and as He was leaving it.  We are called to go out and make disciples.  Fans and, I am sure, executives alike have been worried that Marvel has had no direction since it got all their plot missiles to land with Avengers: Endgame.  Those same people have been waiting for Feige to present the target for the next salvo of movies.  This is one of the reasons for the joke about Wade being the Marvel Jesus in Deadpool & Wolverine.  I am not sure we get it with this one, as entertaining as it can be.

The notion of Wade as savior on par with Jesus in Deadpool & Wolverine is problematic cinematically and spiritually. This latter disclaimer might seem obvious, though I am willing to concede that Deadpool plays a role in Wolverine’s redemption arc.  That is as far as I am willing to go with that metaphor especially when considering the wildly inappropriate language and situations that Deadpool gets into and speaks.  Put simply, nothing is sacred, figuratively and literally.  Yet, I cannot say the movie lacks a heart.  This is why I felt able to laugh at times while watching.  Deadpool has an arc, too.  He goes from feeling sorry for himself, to wanting to protect others.  Early in the movie, we see him interviewing with Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey, Jr., not pictured) valet.  Happy says the reason why Wade is turned down, essentially, is because the “Merc with a Mouth” wants to be a part of the most identifiable Marvel team for the wrong reasons.  On the way out, Happy gives Wade some advice.  The valet suggests that Wade find his place in the world.  The film also makes the point that people crave purpose.  This says a lot about this specific movie, the MCU, and what God has in mind for all of us.  Finding that place or purpose is of an incalculable value.  You find this with male and female religious, who sometimes discuss their time in the cloister as a gift of inestimable treasure that only a hidden life with God can provide.  Happily married couples get it from looking back on their marriage and subsequent families in the same fashion.  These last couple of sentences describe vocations, to which the film seems to ascribe to being a superhero.  Our two eponymous examples turn their backs on those that love them, though Wolverine is more direct about it.  Wade simply retreats into himself after he is rejected by the Avengers.  However it works, they are not sharing their blessings with the world, and that is a different way of saying blessings and graces.  When God brings those into our lives, we need to take full advantage of them and let them lead us where He wills.  That is what serving others is about, and a lesson Wade arguably learns by the end.

As I said, there is a heart to Deadpool & Wolverine that makes it a fair movie, but some of the other material is not good, to say the least, especially for younger audiences.  An older one can handle it, though I wonder how many people get the numerous references found throughout its runtime.  Put differently, it is rated “R” for a reason.  If you can get around nearly constant sex jokes and violence, then there is some good stuff.  Otherwise, you can get away with not seeing it.